French wedding

[MrsLukes]

Anyone have any recommendations for a wedding venue in France?

Do you or partner have any connection to any part of France?

It's actually for my daughter and her fiance. They dont have any connection but just fancy the notion of chateau or vineyard with a rustic vibe. They are doing a short holiday near Bordeaux soon to start the hunt. Wedding not till 2027 though.

It’s a pretty big country for goodness sake. Perhaps narrow it down?

Lots of French regulations about getting married so your daughter needs to do her homework like getting married legally (town hall by the mayor) and then having a separate ceremony. Someone from France can help but I think you have to be resident for a month? And all the documents will be in French etc. following. You need certificates to say you are legally allowed to marry etc. which will need to be translated into French and motorised and have to give intention to marry before.

In a lot of lovely rural areas they won’t speak any English so she will need a translator unless she is fluent.

If she wants to then fine but sometimes romantic destination weddings aren’t always good ideas.

https://chateauduraysse.com/getting-married-in-france-uk-citizens/

Yes you'd have to either marry in the UK and just have a ceremony in France or live here for 40 days, which is a bloody nightmare in its own right. I doubt you'd get a bill that would be accepted unless you rented somewhere that you had to take on the electricity charges which is unlikely on just a 40 day rental...this means actually living here not just being on holiday.

You need to be resident in France to get married there. The only place you can get married is in the Mairie (town hall) of the commune you are resident in with the mayor (or a deputy mayor in larger communes) as the officiant.

I think they need to do, oh I don’t know “, maybe 2 mins of research, to see that there’s a bit more to it than that

Im hoping there is a hugh backstory to this one. Potentially MiL keeps interesting herself (meddling) in their plans. They have just told her they fancy ‘getting married in France’ to give her something to research while they get on in peace. So something like that

No FinallyHere, no huge back story here or MiL meddling. Wt...! As I said it's MY daughter. Have a great relationship with her and her fiance and they are always appreciative of any help I give them. It's a healthy normal relationship! They would have a civil marriage here so just asked about wedding venues because they did do more than 2 minutes of research thanks Hardgum81! Was just a fleeting thought that someone might have had a good experience to pass on!

So they aren’t getting married in France? Perhaps if you had been a bit clearer that they were looking for a reception venue rather than a marriage venue you would have got more useful answers.

I said wedding venues, not marriage! Why so much unpleasantness!

No one has been very helpful have they! We got married in the UK and had a ceremony in France (which of course we referred to as our marriage ceremony) at a lovely chateau more than 10 years ago now. Chateuu Cazenac, which has had a substantial makeover and glow up since we rented it (without any wedding package tied in).

It was a long way to go, but perfect for us as we had a multinational family coming from all over the world. Having a chateau for a week for the wedding meant time with family and friends. It was awesome.

We also did manage to do a lot of the prep ourselves. What I will say is that we used an English wedding helper in France (but found her useless except for her connections to fantastic, FANTASTIC caterers - the food was incredible) and struggled with things like flowers. Local florists were difficult so I ordered wholesale and we did our own flowers. We ordered macaron from a local bakery and packaged them up ourselves in paper bags as favours. We brought decor over from England in a car crammed to the rafters.

I can't stress how much fun it was and how much better value it felt than a one day thing in the UK. It was a small wedding and no pressure on our guests to attend and cheap on-site accommodation (plus campsites up the road for those that wanted it!). If she decides to do it, just think about logistics. Rural France is not easy if you run out of alcohol or want extra sausages for the BBQ the day after etc etc etc

English is not my first language - what’s the difference between a wedding and a marriage? I thought they meant the same thing?

I have no suggestions, except that I love France! One thing I will say is try to ensure that the venue is close to accommodation, or has it on site and it is close to an airport! Make it somewhere easy to get to from the airport and close to a town with some interesting things like a local market. I don't think many people would like to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere for days. Bear that in mind for a destination wedding.

Maybe ask ChatGpt if you know the general area you are interested in?

I am English and still am strongly of the opinion they mean the same thing! She should have clarified that she meant Wedding celebration following an English marriage ceremony if that is what she meant. I think the OP is backtracking having realised it is not so easy!

Blimey!! Really? Do people really come on here to find something to argue about?! Not backtracking. None of it matters. Just looking for a venue, that's all. The rest is not what I was asking for help with or unpleasant comments on!

Yes absolutely. Thank you. Agree, we love France and would be of course considering the ease of transport, location etc as fairly top priority. Thanks wuminty. 😊

Phew! Thank you MumofThreeChaos! Restored my faith! Haha. That's super helpful! Actually Chateaux Cazenac is quite close to where they are visiting but I did wonder if it was a bit too remote. So your comments are interesting. Thanks so much for your help! Xx

And btw my other daughter had her wedding celebration in Italy last year after civil marriage in UK so I'm switched on to how easy or not these things are!

We went to a wedding at Chateau Plombis a few years ago and it was fantastic. I understand the couple had a few problems with the wedding planners though. Re. Damages etc.

https://www.chateauplombis.com/

Thanks so much for this. Taking a look at iy now. Does look lovely!

@MrsLukes What region of France do they like? What season will they be getting married?

There is a fairytale castle around 40kms from Paris, it is very beautiful, the garden is absolutely lovely (I've been there several times). Probably very expensive to get married there, though.
https://www.breteuil.fr/en/

Visited this in summer. Didn't get married there but heard a wedding later in the evening 😁 Very romantic www.chateau-de-paraza.com/mariage-chateau-viticole-france/

😀

Thank you so much! This is interesting!